Manny Arceneaux sat alone in the B.C. Lions locker-room, his head ringing, his mind unclear, and knew something was happening out there.

He just wasn’t sure what.

He’d hear a roar and knew that was good. Then there would be silence and he knew that was bad. Every now and then one of the equipment guys would give him an update. But he didn’t really know for sure until he heard one final roar.

Then his teammates came into the room, his guys, falling all over each other, laughing, crying and he knew what they’d done. And Arceneaux started laughing and crying right along with them.

“It’s very emotional for me, man,” Arceneaux said, shortly after the Lions recorded an impossible, impassioned 32-31 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the West Division semifinal. “I just kept saying, we’ve just got to make a play. We pulled it out, man. I never did (lose hope)”

And Arceneaux might have been alone there, as well.

In their first home playoff game in four years, and the first of Arceneaux’s splendid career, the Lions seemed intent on handing their biggest game of the season to the Bombers, only to snatch it away with a ferocious, relentless second-half comeback that wasn’t long on art but demonstrated this team’s outsized heart. Quarterback Jonathon Jennings’ inspired nine-yard touchdown run with just over a minute left was the winning margin and the Lions still had to sweat out an inexplicable decision by Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea to try a 61-yard field goal on third and four when there were still 36 seconds left on the clock.

But the larger story here was the courage and composure the Lions showed in that second half erasing a 28-12 third-quarter Bombers’ lead and doing it without Arceneaux, who was knocked out of the game by a hellacious Taylor Loftier hit in the third quarter.

B.C. Lions’ Emmanuel Arceneaux lies on the field after the big hit.THE CANADIAN PRESS /
Darryl Dyck

Arceneaux was asked if he’d be ready to the West final next Sunday in Calgary.

“That’s the plan,” he said.

“Manny’s a warrior,” said Lions head coach Wally Buono. “He’s like me. We’ll see what happens.”

Still, whatever happens next week in Calgary, the Lions have a tough act to follow.

On his second pass of the game, Jennings served up an interception to the Bombers’ Chris Randle and on the Lions’ third possession, he fumbled on the Bombers’ 10-yard line as the visitors, who live off turnovers, took an 11-0 lead.

From that point, the Lions were chasing the game and when a Justin Medlock field goal early in the fourth quarter gave the Bombers a 31-19 lead — after their possession was kept alive by a roughing the kicker call on the Lions’ Cameron Ontko — it seemed the Lions have finally completed their self-destruction.

But Jennings, it seems, doesn’t give up easily. The young prince completed his last 11 passes, leading his team on touchdown drives of 75 and 82 yards in the final 11 minutes and scoring the go-ahead major when he escaped the pocket, then beat Loffler in the open field before diving into the end zone, fully extended, the perfect picture for this perfect ending.

“That’s one of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen in my life,” said the Lions’ Bryan Burnham.

“That was the dream moment right there,” Jennings said, before adding. “I always play with my whole heart.”

On the game Jennings was 26-of-35 for 329 yards and two scores and ran for 43 more yards and two more majors as the Lions produced 503 yards in net offence.

Manny Arceneaux is helped off the field.THE CANADIAN PRESS /
Darryl Dyck

“I can’t give enough credit to that 24-year-old quarterback,” said 12-year veteran Ryan Phillips. “I’m just happy he’s on my team. He came into the locker (at halftime) and said, he’s going to get it right.He led us to where we needed to be.”

Buono was asked about Jennings’ rocky start. Turns out that was a sensitive topic.

“Throwing an interception is part of the game,” said Buono. “It’s how you react to it.”

And he was just getting warmed up.

“He had enough composure to play the other 59 minutes of great football. Let’s dwell on the positives. I”m tired of you guys always dwelling on the negatives.

“The positive is a rookie quarterback won a big playoff game we haven’t won in 100 years against a good defence. No way on earth we win this game without him and we’re worried about one bull s—t call.”

Good thing we didn’t ask about the fumble.

“I’m not going to lie to you,” said Phillips. “I shed some tears. I didn’t know what the hell was going to happen. I didn’t know if this was my last game and I didn’t want to go out like that. It was beyond incredible to come back the way we did.”

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